Indian Cookbook Reviews

We love Indian cooking, both traditional and more Americanized. Obviously. Anyway,
we were excited to try two new Indian cookbooks.

Flavors of India is a traditional Indian cookbook with somewhat involved recipes. Yet the author, Shanta Rimbark Sacharoff, also includes simpler variations. For example, after her samosa recipe, she includes directions for putting the samosa filling (potatoes, peas, onions, spices) into a pie crust instead of making the labor-intensive, individual, fried samosas. Of course we had to try her Samosa Pie, and it was delicious. All the flavors of this favorite Indian street food in a hearty pie. She suggests serving wedges of it as an appetizer, but we served it as a main course. And the five of us polished it off in one dinner. Ahem. Throughout the cookbook, Sacharoff provides traditional Indian recipes and simpler variations, which is what I really like about this book.

Indian Vegetarian Cooking, by Sunetra Humbad and Amy Schafer Boger, M.D., is a good "starter" Indian cookbook because most of the recipes fill just one page. As many Indian cookbooks have very long, involved directions, I think this book's layout is less intimidating and easier to follow than most. It also has a few recipes I've never seen in other Indian cookbooks, such as Corn Chapati. Chapati are Indian flatbreads traditionally made with wheat flour. It was fun to try a corn variation for a change. The breads reminded me of Southern corn cakes, with a slightly more bitter flavor.

Flavors of India and Indian Vegetarian Cooking at Your House are published by Book Publishing Company.






These reviews were written for Go Dairy Free.